The San Francisco Chronicle is running a great piece today featuring Toy Story 3 director Lee Unkrich.
His tale begins with a childhood fascination for film. After countless twists of fate, hard work in the entertainment industry and determination, Lee found himself at a little studio in the Bay Area! Turns out he’d be editing the first fully computer animated feature ever!
Fast forward to today and you’ve got the man behind one of this year’s most anticipated films. It’s a funny story actually. What was supposed to be a six week editing stint turned into 16 years of success for the TS3 director!
Having co-directed Toy Story 2, Monsters, Inc., and Finding Nemo, John Lasseter knew that Lee would be the right choice for the third installment in the series. It shouldn’t be surprising that Pixar’s CCO was absolutely right — Unkrich has certainly created a masterpiece!
Unlike Pixar’s last four directors, Lee Unkrich comes from an editing background, but those differences have only proven to strengthen the studio. In fact, he’s credited for pointing the Toy Story crew in the right visual direction as his previous works were in live-action which is shot similarly to CG.
After seeing Toy Story 3 in theatres, you’ll be sure that Lee Unkrich continues to raise Pixar’s bar with his directorial debut. But most importantly, he is truly a great guy and absolutely deserves this kind of recognition!
Read the full article, complete with detailed insight and quotes from John Lasseter, over at SFGate.
Your thoughts?
Toy Story 3 is Lee Unkrich’s FIRST film as a director. 1994 was a long time ago. Savor it Lee! When you come to Tokyo, go to Tsukiji market and eat some real sushi, not that CALifornia roll.
Rey- Was the message above in response to what I wrote or an open letter to Lee? I’m a little confused. 😛
Baffling I say, baffling…
But in all seriousness, I think Lee’s background in film and editing is really a great addition to the Pixar team. It’s so true, that CG has a lot more in common with live action movies (camera movements, lighting, textures) than hand-drawn animation does.
I also think it’s great that Lee isn’t trying to imitate John Lasseter’s style, in the process severely limiting his own creative ideas. It shows how smart of a man he is when he says “I didn’t try to make a movie he would make – I’m not him. But I wanted to make a move he would respect.”
Excellent interview.
Just my two cents 🙂
martini833-I wrote an open letter to Lee. I wrote it in a rush. Sorry for the confusion.